How it happened

Lidl-Trek came to the Giro d’Italia Women with the idea to race on the offensive and target stage victories. It didn’t take long for that ambition to turn to reality, when on the second stage (the first road stage after the opening time trial) Anna Henderson escaped to victory after a 40km attack.

Anna wasn’t the only Lidl-Trek rider on the attack, with Lucinda Brand, Lauretta Hanson and Fleur Moors all landing blows earlier in the stage. Ultimately, it was Anna’s attack that proved the deicisve one and she was joined by Dilyxine Miermont of Ceratizit. The duo combined well on the road to Aprica, gaining a maximum advantage of three minutes. Back in the peloton, Spratty, Shirin and Bella chased down attacks to protect Anna, putting off any riders from bridging across as the gap was reduced.

It came down to a sprint between Anna and Miermont, with the Brit jumping out of the slipstream with speed to pass her rival, crossing the line with arms aloft in celebration. Thanks to a strong opening time trial, Anna was in the running to take the pink jersey too. As she hugged her teammates, the confirmation came through: it was a double celebration for Anna Henderson and Lidl-Trek.

The winner’s words

“I can’t believe it. As a team we made the plan this morning to be aggressive because we knew it would be a hard final and we knew that we had a really good team for attacking. I took the opportunity with, I think, about 40km to go and they gave us three minutes and I know that once we had around two minutes at the bottom we could make it and I just kept working and yeah, I can’t believe it. It’s my first WorldTour victory, my first individual Grand Tour victory so, I can’t be more thankful for my teammates.

We are here for stages, and this is what we came to do and I am so thankful to my teammates for supporting me in the breakaway. I am beyond grateful and happy. I am in shock. I said to my boyfriend this morning that I had nothing to lose and I was waiting all year to come fifth in a sprint and I wasn’t going to wait around today and I took the opportunity when I saw it and I can’t believe it came off.”

“We knew it was a tailwind all the way in the valley and once you made it over the steep climb then, yeah, it’s maybe 4 percent until the finish and we really believed as a team today that a breakaway could make it and I am super happy that I was the won able to get it across the line. I haven’t won a road race in a really long time so to actually be the first person over the line was emotional and I was just shaking and happy to see my teammates.

My teammates really believed in me behind and I could hear that they were really supporting the breakaway. We were also super aggressive in the first kilometers of the race and we were just backing each other up super well today. Proud to be a part of this team.

It’s a dream and an honour to wear a leaders jersey and I am super happy and super proud and I hope I can do it proud for the Team and the race.”

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